Breathing of the Heliosphere

In late 2016, the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) observed an enhancement of hydrogen energetic neutral atom (ENA) flux in ∼20° south from the nose direction. This enhancement was a consequence of an abrupt increase of the solar wind (SW) dynamic pressure observed at 1 au in late 2014. In subsequent years, the increased flux of 4.3 keV ENAs was observed at higher latitudes filling in the heliosheath, in ENAs at lower energies, and the Ribbon flux. We observe that the rapid increase of SW pressure occurs every solar cycle (SC) from the beginning of the regular in situ SW measurements in the ecliptic plane. The SW pressure pulse happens about 4.7 yr from the beginning of each SC, it is during the maximum phase of solar activity, and repeats with a period of ∼10.2 yr. These repeating pulses of the SW pressure can cause periodic SC variations of the ENA production in the heliosheath. We follow McComas et al. results for the relation between SW pressure increase and ENA flux enhancement to investigate the periodic SW pressure increases and their consequences for the heliosphere. Our study of time delay between the cause (pressure pulse at 1 au) and the consequence (ENA enhancement) show that IBEX observed in 2009–2011 remnants of the SW pressure pulse that happened during the maximum of SC 23.

A Turbulent Heliosheath Driven by the Rayleigh–Taylor Instability

The heliosphere is the bubble formed by the solar wind as it interacts with the interstellar medium (ISM). The collimation of the heliosheath (HS) flows by the solar magnetic field in the heliotail into distinct north and south columns (jets) is seen in recent global simulations of the heliosphere. However, there is disagreement between the models about how far downtail the two-lobe feature persists and whether the ambient ISM penetrates into the region between the two lobes. Magnetohydrodynamic simulations show that these heliospheric jets become unstable as they move down the heliotail and drive large-scale turbulence. However, the mechanism that produces this turbulence had not been identified. Here we show that the driver of the turbulence is the Rayleigh–Taylor (RT) instability produced by the interaction of neutral H atoms streaming from the ISM with the ionized matter in the HS. The drag between the neutral and ionized matter acts as an effective gravity, which causes an RT instability to develop along the axis of the HS magnetic field. A density gradient exists perpendicular to this axis due to the confinement of the solar wind by the solar magnetic field. The characteristic timescale of the instability depends on the neutral H density in the ISM and for typical values the growth rate is ∼3 years. The instability destroys the coherence of the heliospheric jets and magnetic reconnection ensues, allowing ISM material to penetrate the heliospheric tail. Signatures of this instability should be observable in Energetic Neutral Atom maps from future missions such as the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP). The turbulence driven by the instability is macroscopic and potentially has important implications for particle acceleration.

An energy-tunable positronium beam produced via photodetachment of positronium negative ions and its applications

Positronium is a bound state of one electron and one positron. It can be seen as the lightest neutral “atom”. It can also be seen as a neutralized electron or a neutralized positron. Since positronium is electrically neutral, special techniques are required to generate a variable energy beam of positronium. In recent years, it has become possible to efficiently generate positronium negative ions in which another electron is bound to positronium. It is possible to generate an energy-tunable positronium beam by accelerating positronium negative ions with an electric field and irradiating them with laser light to photodetach one electron. Generation of such a positronium beam has actually been realized, and applied research has begun. Here, we describe the energy-variable positronium beam generation, its applied research including the observation of the motion-induced resonance of positronium and the first measurement of the binding energy of positronium to one electron.

Mesoscale Features in the Global Geospace Response to the March 12, 2012 Storm

The geospace response to coronal mass ejections includes phenomena across many regions, from reconnection at the dayside and magnetotail, through the inner magnetosphere, to the ionosphere, and even to the ground. Phenomena occurring in each region are often connected to each other through the magnetic field, but that field undergoes dynamic changes during storms and substorms. Improving our understanding of the geospace response to storms requires a global picture that enables us to observe all the regions simultaneously with both spatial and temporal resolution. Using the Energetic Neutral Atom (ENA) imager on the Two Wide-Angle Imaging Neutral-Atom Spectrometers (TWINS) mission, a temperature map can be calculated to provide a global view of the magnetotail. These maps are combined with in situ measurements at geosynchronous orbit from GOES 13 and 15, auroral images from all sky imagers (ASIs), and ground magnetometer measurements to examine the global geospace response of a coronal mass ejection (CME) driven event on March 12th, 2012. Mesoscale features in the magnetotail are observed throughout the interval, including prior to the storm commencement and during the main phase, which has implications for the dominant processes that lead to pressure buildup in the inner magnetosphere. Auroral enhancements that can be associated with these magnetotail features through magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling are observed to appear only after global reconfigurations of the magnetic field.

Relativistic Study on the Scattering of e± from Atoms and Ions of the Rn Isonuclear Series

Calculations are presented for differential, integrated elastic, momentum transfer, viscosity, inelastic, total cross sections and spin polarization parameters S, T and U for electrons and positrons scattering from atoms and ions of radon isonuclear series in the energy range from 1 eV–1 MeV. In addition, we analyze systematically the details of the critical minima in the elastic differential cross sections along with the positions of the corresponding maximum polarization points in the Sherman function for the aforesaid scattering systems. Coulomb glory is investigated across the ionic series. A short range complex optical potential, comprising static, polarization and exchange (for electron projectile) potentials, is used to describe the scattering from neutral atom. This potential is supplemented by the Coulomb potential for the same purpose for a charged atom. The Dirac partial wave analysis, employing the aforesaid potential, is carried out to calculate the aforesaid scattering observables. A comparison of our results with other theoretical findings shows a reasonable agreement over the studied energy range.